As a longtime Nintendo fan, I understand how easy it is to get sucked into a doom-and-gloom mentality when they make unpopular decisions. Considering the company’s current market position, their latest bombshells seem to rank among their most worrisome moves: delaying the next Zelda yet again, bringing only one playable game to E3, keeping NX details under wraps, and so on. But, as is often the case, I think the reaction to Nintendo’s upcoming plans is overblown and shortsighted.
Let’s start with Zelda. Nintendo finally confirmed what most fans had already assumed, namely that the next proper Legend of Zelda title for home consoles will be released for both Wii U and NX. By delaying the game to 2017, they position it as an early NX title in order to give that new system a serious turbo boost early in its life cycle, but more importantly they make a long-term decision with an aim toward bringing a better, more polished, and more relevant product to market.
The same is true of NX. Though fans may have gotten their hopes up regarding a 2016 release for the system due to the many rumors swirling about, Nintendo’s goal is to make real their vision for a quality video game system. As Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima put it, “Our approach is that we should wait until we can provide a fully realized experience rather than rushing to launch in the holiday season.” And he emphasized that this mentality applies to both the hardware and the planned software lineup. This is a measured, mature, and confident plan. Hurrying the NX to store shelves in a panic is a weak move and no way to launch a successful system.
Withholding NX from E3 is actually a smart long-term maneuver, as well. E3 is not like some sort of video game championship main event where industry all-stars meet in a steel cage and the winner takes all. Companies don’t actually need to lay all their cards on the table in hopes of getting someone, anyone to care. Any announcement made at the Expo is just one among many, and fans see so many of them it all just becomes jumbled together at some point. The way they’ve set things up now, Nintendo will unveil the NX later this year or early next in a way that allows them to have the spotlight and narrative all to themselves. Coming on the heels of Wii U’s muddled fan reception, carefully controlling the messaging of the system reveal is likely more important to them than ever.
Bringing Zelda to E3 in a major way fulfills a lot of pent-up fan desire, and it’ll likely garner enough positive buzz on its own to keep Nintendo’s mindshare afloat. Also, while they did say Zelda would be their only playable game at the show, I firmly believe there will be a Direct-style digital presentation with enough new stuff to help fill out their software lineup for the remainder of the year. Unless you’re an E3 attendee who would actually get to play the games on the show floor, I doubt your experience will be all that different from the last few years.
Ultimately, we won’t really know for quite some time if Nintendo’s decision-making in transitioning to the NX era is sound. But I think at this moment, a lot of the negativity towards their upcoming plans just boils down to impatience. There’s a decent chance that if you can just hold out a little longer, you’ll get something really special and worthy of Nintendo’s seal of quality.